Newly leaked documentation accompanying the developer's kit for the successor to the Xbox 360, codenamed Durango, is rekindling rumors that the new system will require disc-based games to be installed to a hard drive before being played.

The "Hardware Overview" included in the Xbox Developer Kit help files was obtained and published by VGLeaks, and it matches up closely with rumors leaked last month by SuperDaE, a shadowy source who once tried to sell a Durango development kit on eBay. The document discusses how Durango games will be distributed via Blu-ray disc (an upgrade from the Xbox 360's DVDs) but says those games won't be playable directly from that optical media. Instead "all games will be installed on the hard drive... disc media will be used for distribution, but during gameplay, games will not use content from the optical disc."

This suggests that Microsoft would use some sort of online-activation code or other method to confirm that a single Blu-ray disc is not being installed to multiple systems (and thus place limits on the standard secondhand resale of used game discs). While the help file doesn't address this directly, it does mention that the system will "always maintain a network connection so the console software and games are always current." The document also suggests players will be able to start a game while installation to the hard drive is ongoing, a setup similar to the one announced recently for the PlayStation 4.

This kind of one-install-per-disc limit has been rumored in the past, but this is the most direct acknowledgement of mandatory installs from what is apparently a Microsoft-produced document. The Verge was able to get independent verification that the XDK file was genuine, but it also says that the information is from last year. The file itself warns that "this document is preliminary and subject to change," so there is plenty of time for Microsoft to alter course on this issue, especially after Sony's decision to back off its own used-game-blocking plans.

Elsewhere, the leaked overview discusses a new Kinect sensor that will be bundled with the Durango and which will be "required for the system to operate." The new 3D sensor will support a higher resolution and provide a depth map that is "less noisy" than the original Kinect, according to the document, and allow for a wider field of view that doesn't require a tilt motor in the hardware itself.

Other hardware tidbits discussed in the document include a "familiar x64 architecture and tools," built-in "move engines" that can handle common tasks like compression and decompression, and dedicated audio hardware that produces 7.1 digital sound output.

Promoted Comments

This suggests that Microsoft would use some sort of online-activation code or other method to confirm that a single Blu-ray disc is not being installed to multiple systems (and thus placing limits on the standard secondhand resale of used game discs).

No it doesn't. The presence of the disc itself can be used to verify the ownership of the disc without streaming any content from it, which is how it currently works with games installed to the Xbox 360. The only change from the current installation process is making it mandatory instead of optional.

6 posts | registered Dec 14, 2012

Kyle Orland
Kyle is the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica, specializing in video game hardware and software. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He is based in the Washington, DC area. Emailkyle.orland@arstechnica.com//Twitter@KyleOrl

I've seen Kyle posit several times that Sony has either denied or backed off the whole used game blocking thing and every time I've followed the sources there has been no such thing. Diplomatic politicking is not the same thing as outright denial. To my knowledge, everything that has ever been said by Sony is still consistent with the possibility that they will block used games.

What scares me more than "blocking used games" (which I doubt will happen, I am betting that this is just a way for MS to get around paying licensing fees to the BD consortium) is the "always on" Kinect. What could possibly ever be the purpose of it. You already have a controller, so motion is optional. I am scared only because of the rumored "viewback" software that allows MS (or whomever) to "see" who is using NextBox and how, and coordinate "new user experiences" (read: advertisements) specifically for that person/those people.

This suggests that Microsoft would use some sort of online-activation code or other method to confirm that a single Blu-ray disc is not being installed to multiple systems (and thus placing limits on the standard secondhand resale of used game discs).

No it doesn't. The presence of the disc itself can be used to verify the ownership of the disc without streaming any content from it, which is how it currently works with games installed to the Xbox 360. The only change from the current installation process is making it mandatory instead of optional.

This seems so bad for the environment. I mean, think about how many bluray discs would be made for one use only. We're moving past that at this point. I think I'd much rather an always on, download mandatory system than one that wastes so many of our resources.

Side note, maybe they're going to do something slightly different. The game installs on the system and doesn't need the disc anymore. If the disc is put in a system where the certified user is not logged in, prompt for a "license transfer fee". Once paid, the game works for you like new and is disabled on their system. Split the fee profits between Microsoft and the developer/publisher/whoever.

Even though everything surrounding the PS4 and this iteration of X-Box is still speculation, the the way the speculation continues to lean is not comforting. I worry this may end up being the first console generation ever I don't participate in, and having been participating since the Atari 2600, that's a long stretch.

To be honest though, I feel like the industry could use a healthy shake up, and maybe Sony and MS making some alienating decisions would open the market up to more players that could make a positive impact.

Anything that generates gamer rage is a good thing, so this is actually good news.If upcoming consoles could explode after 3 month of usage that would be even better.Gaming is overrated, gamers deserved to be milked to the latest cent (F2P), and Mario must die horrible death.

So, I can see how the 'always on, always connected' could be used to implement DRM. But honestly to me it sounds like Connected Standby brought to the console. MS has talked this up for both the phone and the Win8/Windows RT PC OSes recently, so it's not unreasonable that they'd be talking it up here if that's what it is.

Not saying there ISN'T a DRM move being made here, but people seem to be unable to imagine anything else.

This suggests that Microsoft would use some sort of online-activation code or other method to confirm that a single Blu-ray disc is not being installed to multiple systems (and thus placing limits on the standard secondhand resale of used game discs).

No it doesn't. The presence of the disc itself can be used to verify the ownership of the disc without streaming any content from it, which is how it currently works with games installed to the Xbox 360. The only change from the current installation process is making it mandatory instead of optional.

Yeah, I'm quite curious why the leap from mandatory hard drive install to "always on net connection with one-time/one-machine install" is being made (well, besides getting page clicks I suppose...). I'm not saying the new xbox won't have one time only activation or something, that's certainly the way things *seem* to be heading, but I can see lots of other reasons for a mandatory install as well. Always on/one time activation doesn't necessarily need hard drive install, and hard drive install doesn't necessarily mean always on/one time activation.

I've seen Kyle posit several times that Sony has either denied or backed off the whole used game blocking thing and every time I've followed the sources there has been no such thing. Diplomatic politicking is not the same thing as outright denial. To my knowledge, everything that has ever been said by Sony is still consistent with the possibility that they will block used games.

EDIT: Word order for clarity.

Direct quote from the linked article:

Quote:

More distressingly, when asked about online registration for used games, Yoshida said that the decision was up to individual publishers, and that Sony is "not talking about that plan" for its own first-party games.

This is how it already exists, though. Online pass codes are already common, and publisher dependent.

My first thoughts on this were the Xbox 360 would be the last console I purchased. But honestly that's not true, I will probably buy the next Xbox, and do what I do now, wait for the price of a game to drop.

You're not going to get $60 per game from me, it's not happening. So unless they prohibit the dropping of game prices, great job, you've accomplished nothing.

And if games do actually never drop in price from $60, I'm not buying your games at all. So again, nothing accomplished.

Many people are willing to plunk down $60 on a game with the knowledge that they can get half that back on the resale market. If the next gen consoles kill the secondary market, they'd better be prepared to take a serious hit on the number of games sold as well.

That kind of DRM is a deal breaker for me; I can understand using an online check to make sure several people don't have a copy form the same disk installed at the same time, but I should be able to uninstall and sell my disk if I want to, or the code-checking should invalidate my install if I give the disk to someone else. Even so, such checks are pointless, and largely a waste of time that will almost certainly disadvantage more genuine players, as hackers will just find out how to change the unique code for their disk to create "unique" copies for distribution.

Requiring installation of a disk is fine, and not unexpected as optical media just isn't as fast as current generation drives. However, the next XBox had better have a reasonable minimum disk size; I still have an older model 20gb 360, and that was the mid-range option when I bought it, which is pathetic as I can only install more than a single disk if I shunt stuff off onto a USB stick. Disk space has been another huge gripe for the 360, as it's always been priced to the same standard that Apple uses for RAM and storage, that is to say, an entirely unacceptable level. But then MS went a step further and add some kind of proprietary crap to the disks so you couldn't just install one of your own.

Quite simply, overly expensive/locked in storage hardware, over zealous (and ineffectual) DRM, and subscriptions for online play are all deal breakers for me. I gave up on XBox Live Gold ages ago, and the only thing keeping me on the 360 is the fact that that's what I currently have, I have zero brand loyalty for the XBox as it is now.

"This suggests that Microsoft would use some sort of online-activation code or other method to confirm that a single Blu-ray disc is not being installed to multiple systems (and thus place limits on the standard secondhand resale of used game discs)."

This seems to be a very large leap of faith in the deduction here. Where did they actually confirm it was single install per disk? That assumption falls on its face when I consider the following situation. I install the game, play it, beat it, uninstall to save some space since these are large bluray games. What happens years later when I want to replay? Clearly it is unlikely these disks would be a one time use, and would continue to show value as an installation disk long past the first install.

Also, It seems odd to assume that cd-keys or some other activation code would be required when games currently can be installed and require nothing more than the disk to be in the drive. This seems to come across as paranoid fear-mongering more than genuine fact based news.

That said I have no doubt Microsoft has some sort of plan here that will be outside the norm, but I think we need to keep our wild speculations in check.

Anything that generates gamer rage is a good thing, so this is actually good news.If upcoming consoles could explode after 3 month of usage that would be even better.Gaming is overrated, gamers deserved to be milked to the latest cent (F2P), and Mario must die horrible death.

Looks like you have too much rage against gamers. Maybe you should see some one about that. Not that I'm a gamer but I do own PS3 and 360 consoles (for back when I used to play games) and if there is an always on internet connection requirement I will be skipping these consoles. Its not rage just my disagreement with the approach. And the only way I can show it is by not buying the product.

Anything that generates gamer rage is a good thing, so this is actually good news.If upcoming consoles could explode after 3 month of usage that would be even better.Gaming is overrated, gamers deserved to be milked to the latest cent (F2P), and Mario must die horrible death.

For some odd reason, this is getting downvoted, but it's exactly what is happening in these comments thus far.

You all are complaining about year old paperwork for a dev kit. "Oh, Kinect is gonna spy on me!" "Oh my god, the used game market's going to fail!" "I REFUSE TO BUY, blah blah blah"

Now, if rumors turn to facts down the line, by all means, complain. Ars, I'm not sure why you keep stoking this whole "next-gen consoles are going to break the console market" fire (unless just for clicks?

Edit: Additionally, for the Kinect thing, couldn't you just point it towards a wall or straight down? lol

With the understanding these are just rumors, Microsoft is starting to look more and more like Sony did at the launch of the PS3, with an expectation they know what is right and the audience will accept it willingly. Hubris all the way.

Hopefully if this is accurate the SimCity debacle will change some plans. And if not, guess I don't need to have an Xbox next generation.

Provided this information is still accurate 1 year later, this sucks. Single activation games? What happens if the hard drive in the unit fails (those never fail, right?)

Two of my nephews (brothers) have their own Xboxes and share games between them. A different nephew has two Xboxes. So this would mean family members can't share games, or people with multiple consoles can only play a given game on one of them. I can't imagine that Microsoft would disable playing a game on multiple consoles in the same household.

I wonder if they would either allow sale by the original owner - say, allow any game purchased new to be sold once. The other thing they could do is prohibit sales while at the same time cutting the cost of new games in half. I know avid Xbox gamers who claim never to have bought a new game.

Aside from killing the used game market, this would also kill rentals. It seems to me that the first company to wipe out used games will be driving everyone to their competitors.

Forget used game sales, what about taking the game over to a friend's house to play? What if the hard drive in my unit fails? Drives fail all the time.

And some hard drives last for as long as they're made to last, for instance I've never had a hard drive fail on me by the time it needed upgrading anyways. Your point?

I've said it before, one can just as easily suspect these negative possibilities as easily as you can imagine that the games will be tied to a gaming profile which would let you take the game over to a friends. After all, a similar scheme is already in place on the x360 as it is.

This suggests that Microsoft would use some sort of online-activation code or other method to confirm that a single Blu-ray disc is not being installed to multiple systems (and thus placing limits on the standard secondhand resale of used game discs).

No it doesn't. The presence of the disc itself can be used to verify the ownership of the disc without streaming any content from it, which is how it currently works with games installed to the Xbox 360. The only change from the current installation process is making it mandatory instead of optional.

++ I came here to post the very same thing.

It seems like a bit of a leap to jump to "will require a net connection to play a disc game".

In fact, that seems fairly unlikely. I can't imagine your Xbox being completely unable to play a game without a network connection.

All that said, I can't discount the possibility - there's money and greed involved here for publishers, after all.

They could just bind the game to your Live account(either on first play or with a code or with Kinect) and then the disk is just data delivery for installs/reinstalls. Similar to Steam. You could support friends house playback by allowing anyone on the same console as a Live registered owner of the game to play. Xbox already supports transferring profiles around via cloud or USB, so its not hard to carry with you. For used game sales, they would need a way to transfer digital ownership, but that's not a difficult problem.

Forget used game sales, what about taking the game over to a friend's house to play? What if the hard drive in my unit fails? Drives fail all the time.

If this is all what happens in the end user system (not sure I buy that either, it makes sense for Microsoft to track developer machines in a far stricter manner than the final product), but think Steam for Xbox with a media distribution system through bluray. Everything is tied to your account, so you go to a friends house and log in with your account. If the harddrive fails, then re-download your games (it wouldn't surprise me if they had a cloud system for game saves too). The disk itself doesn't have to be single use, in fact Microsoft could openly encourage everyone to share them around (grab a disk from a friend, play for 3 hours then a window pops up saying "want to play more? $60 thanks" while your friend keeps the game as well), it's the purchase being tied to your account that matters.

That's how Microsoft is probably going to try sell such a system, it's a purely digital download system with the disks being available to save you having to download (I used to do this with Steam anyway, one person downloads the large game and shares the files with friends, we still all had to buy the game, but the files themselves are easily transferred around to save on caps).

"This suggests that Microsoft would use some sort of online-activation code or other method to confirm that a single Blu-ray disc is not being installed to multiple systems (and thus place limits on the standard secondhand resale of used game discs)."

This seems to be a very large leap of faith in the deduction here. Where did they actually confirm it was single install per disk?

And even if there were a "single installation per disk" rule, it doesn't have to have "first install wins" enforcement. A "last install (/verification) wins" policy would allow you to change hardware, take the disk to play at a friends, and sell it on when you're done.

Semi-related to the topic, let me just add my continuing disappointment with the current Xbox hardware.

I've had the dreaded "Open Tray" error three times now with my Xbox. The first time I sent it to Microsoft and got a completely different replacement back for my troubles. The second time (out of warranty) I paid a guy locally $30 and got another year of use out of it. Now it's busted again.

I don't trust Microsoft to make hardware that won't fail. And honestly, given that my first PS3 hit the YLOD out of warranty, I don't trust Sony either.

Not sure what the fuss is about here. I for one almost always have my Xbox connected to the internet as I sign in the first minute I turn on my box. I also install all my disc before I play them. I am an average user, so I'm not sure how anything written above would change what is already going on. It is a complete assumption and IMO a backwards assumption to think so. Microsoft is just implementing what the majority of users are doing already.

Semi-related to the topic, let me just add my continuing disappointment with the current Xbox hardware.

I've had the dreaded "Open Tray" error three times now with my Xbox. The first time I sent it to Microsoft and got a completely different replacement back for my troubles. The second time (out of warranty) I paid a guy locally $30 and got another year of use out of it. Now it's busted again.

I don't trust Microsoft to make hardware that won't fail. And honestly, given that my first PS3 hit the YLOD out of warranty, I don't trust Sony either.